I’m taking a quarter off from Social Media – namely Facebook, Reddit, Slashdot,
Twitter, Hacker News. I would unplug entirely from the Internet, but considering
the Internet is my job, I don’t think my employer would be too hot on the idea
on me attending sprint planning via post.

My reason for this is simple: my information channels are becoming rather
siloed. Facebook curates my news feed such that it is just an RSS feed of

same two people over and over again. I don’t know why Facebook has decided that
I want to hear every one of their posts and it isn’t that I don’t enjoy them, or
share in your cultural opinions but I have a rather diverse and eclectic
collection of Facebook friends and yet I do not hear a diverse collection of
views. The hive mind of Reddit and Hacker News also curates it’s own content to
follow a very narrow line of acceptable opinions.

I find myself concerned with how much of the pot of ideas that surround me are
my own – come upon by reason and experience and how much is just the echo
chamber of my silo. A self-selected confirmation bias just regurgitating and
re-enforcing the same normality time and again.

So my idea is to spend the next three months avoiding any form of social media
or curated feeds. Get away from the content pushers and get back to being a
content puller. Go back to hunting down my own news, essays, and articles
through relaxing dives into Google. Find some high quality bloggers to follow
who aren’t just trying to push some product or spin up a lazy article on the
controversy de jouer for some easy ad views. Get through my backlog of
technology articles in my pocket waiting for me to peruse.

For those where this is the only way they know how to get a hold of me: I will
still be available via Facebook messenger thanks to Pidgin and via GooglePlus
since there really isn’t anything on GooglePlus anyways.

About

Joseph Hallenbeck attended the RTIS program at DigiPen Institute of Technology, studied Victorian-era literature at the University of Oxford, and graduated from Augustana University in Sioux Falls, SD with a B.A. in Philosophy and English Literature. He has worked as an interpretive ranger, naturalist, and caver for the National Park Service and is now employed as a Software Engineer at Research Square in Durham, NC.